McIntosh is under a precautionary water boil notice until further notice.

In a phone interview on Friday evening Council Vice President Howard Walkup said town maintenance employee Paul Kelly told him the pressure gauge malfunctioned.

Walkup said the pressure gauge operates like a thermostat telling the pump when to shut on and off.

Friday evening, Mayor Marsha Strange said the water went out early Friday morning.

"They got it fixed fairly quickly," Councilman Lee Deaderick said.

Deaderick said he was pleased that the town was giving residents proper notice.

Walkup confirmed that they got the pump working, and someone will come out and fix it on Monday morning.

In the past during water failures, Kelly and other town employees stayed with the pump overnight watching. Walkup thought that they didn't think that would be necessary this time around.

Since March, the town has replaced some parts of the water system and is planning to build a fund to replace an aging pump. Walkup said the pressure gauge was not one of the parts that previously failed.

Water boil notices were circulated around McIntosh, posted on resident's doors.

The notice says that the town advises boiling water used for drinking, cooking, making ice, brushing teeth and washing dishes.

The notice cautions resident to boil water prior to use -- with a rolling boil of one minute. Another option is disinfecting water by adding 8 drops (1/8 teaspoon) of plain unscented bleach per gallon of water and allowing it to sit for 30 minutes. If the water is still cloudy after 30 minutes, repeat procedure.

Deaderick said the town had connected the Department of Health and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Town officials said they did not know, as yet, how long the boil water notice will last. But it will last until they get results of the bacterial tests back to ensure the water supply is safe, which possibly could be next week.

Notices said the updates would be posted on the community bulletin board.

Hey anonymous, go ahead and drink the water if you feel it safe to do so. Don't be critical of Cher for putting the information out there. I know I have been wondering how long we would need to boil our water;I was happy to see this information available.I don't think anyone is "freaking out". Have another glass dear.

like a said they cant even run a water department, and some of you dolts want to give this council 8 dollars a month to build water repair fund.... enterprise fund??? more about what a poor choice that is...

Is it true that at least one member of the town council is not on the town water supply? If that is true, will they still have to pay the repair assesment? If not, why should we offer them fire protection via our hydrants? Also, why is one of those members "in charge" of the water plant.... that does not make me feel very good about the healthy nature of the water - they dont have to drink it.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Howard Walkup has a well, rather than McIntosh water.

I don't know why he is in charge of the water, other than he's been around longer than the others and knows more about it.

I'm thinking that if you don't feel comfortable with Howard on the council, make sure you vote against him when/if he ever runs again. That'll be this fall.

The proposed water fee was for all residences when it was last discussed.

I don't think you can stop someone from accessing a hydrant, or from the fire department accessing it for them. And frankly, I wouldn't want to live in a town where people pick and choose who gets to benefit from the fire hydrants. Would you?

Could someone please explain what is the reason for all the animosity in McIntosh? I hate to sound like Polyanna (although I often do)....why is there so much dissention and bitterness? All I've ever heard is that it "goes way back". Does anyone actually remember what started all this suspicion and deep resentments?

Let me see if i can man up, assuming this was an open invatation, with a better idea. An enterprize account can be established by borrowing funds from the road department fund. The loan would be interest free, and repaid by a combination of an increased usaage fee and the interest earned on the road fund. The road fund is nearly $500,000.00 at 5% that should yeild $25,0000.00 a year, the interest usage is not controled by state statue. Since 65% of the water department is in the right of way of the road department, the road funds can be used to replace the piping in the right-of-way. After consideration, it might not be necessary to have any increase in the monthly charges to repay the initial loan, after two years the interest would amount to fifty thousand dollars, substasntially more than the thirty five thousand dollars Lee stated he'd like to raise for the enterprise fund. It might be wise to raise the usage fee to encourage conservation, but i'll leave that to the council.

Good answer, Manning-up. I dunno if the water fund idea is feasible or not. You really should run it by the council to see, though. Couldn't hurt. Maybe you can come up with an idea for how to get the town a school while you are at it.

Sheila - Being a little Polyanna is a good thing in my book.

As for the bitterness going way back... I don't know what started it. I've heard some of the same stories passed around that you probably have.

I think when it comes down to it, the dissension is about control.

Some people have it. Other people want it.

Most of the brouhahas I've witnessed in the last year or so spawned from power struggles and arguments over resources.

Maybe that's too simplistic an interpretation on my part. I'm certainly open to other suggestions.

Thanks for your answer, Cher. You may be right about the "power" issue. Maybe no one really knows for sure how it all started, sort of like a family that has to keep it's deep dark secrets. It's just that life is so short and McIntosh is so small and sweet. It seems a shame to me for there to be so much "dislike" in such a tiny population. I would love to see the school succeed and thrive with the help of the town and its people, regardless of past hurts or perceived misuse of power. The water problem hopefully will be corrected soon. I keep forgetting not to rinse my toothbrush from the tap (argh). Thanks for listening. I'll go back to my little world. ~ Polyanna aka Sheila Winters

Lets see, get the town a school? Well, the town does have a charter school, and it did very well this last year. In fact 19 of the eighty students attending are from McIntosh, that means 1/4th of the students are from McIntosh. Prehaps the tax payers of McIntosh should only get 1/4th of the liability of a school. The trick is to have a school and not leave the town taxpayers holding the mortage on the land and the buildings if the school should close. You see, the structures would revert to the county school system if the school fails or if it should close. So, how do we get this school, or better stated, the loan to build the new buildings? Remembering the school did real well without the fancy stuff. This is too easy, the charter school is certain to get a loan from the USDA. A slam dunk in fact and at a very low interest rate. But they dont have land to build the buildings. So, how do we get the land for the charter school, which did so well? Proving that they dont really need a fancy building. Well, how about this, the land that was given to the Town of McIntosh by the Marion County School System. Title that property to a separate group, who will attain the loan and then lease it to the charter school. If the charter school fails then the land and the building belong to the separate group, and can be returned to the city of McIntosh without risking the loss of the property to the Marion County School System. Or since, the property was a gift to the city just give it to the charter school. Let them attain the loan. But for goodness sake don't risk the tax payers money by building the school and leaving us on the hook for the building and the loan. NO GOVERNMENT IS BETTER THAN MCINTOSH GOVERNMENT.

I get that whenever anything moves into the realm of McIntosh's municipal government, there's the eventual power struggle. Frankly, I agree with Sheila. It would be nice to see the school thrive in McIntosh.

I liked the response. I thought it was well-thought out. I have a question that nagged at me since I read it, though. Why is a middle man really necessary?

If the town could deed the land over to an outside group, why not just deed it over to the school, or get the loan itself?

And what happens to the school and the outside group when the loan is paid off? If the school owned it, they'd keep it. If the town owned it, they would have an investment.

The other question I have about an outside group getting involved would be how could they be held accountable by residents?

We tried to create an "outside" group that would have answered to the council with the CRA and everybody's panties ended up in a collective bunch last year.

Not to poke holes in your idea... I really was wondering these things.

I also have been wondering about the person who posted that the county said Lee couldn't vote. That person never said what the grounds would be for keeping him from voting.

I really don't think the county has authority over whether he votes or not. That's a state law.

The question of his voting has bearing on the issue. Let's face it, the council was split 3-2 by their opinions and interest in the workshop for helping find a solution for the school. Take Lee out of the mix and I'd project that any motion would fail 2-2 in the best case scenario.

OK think of this---The Town of McIntosh supporting and taking PRIDE in it's school by working together and making a solution happen. Just think this would be a great start to a town full of pride and RID of old wars. We need to turn our backs at these old wars and stop the circling rail road effect of constant battle.

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Editor and Publisher:

I'm Cher From McIntosh, FL I'm a graduate student at the University of Florida working on a master's degree in Mass Communication. While I was finishing my undergrad degree in journalism last year, I reported on McIntosh, Fla. for an in-depth reporting class. I figured that the reporting and the public record files should go somewhere people can access them. Reporters don't report to keep the information they find to themselves. Some of that reporting is included here in a forum that allows response. McIntosh suffers because with no news coverage, the local government and the rumor mill have too much potential to run rampant over residents. I moved to McIntosh in the fall of 1999.
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